HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's tennis team started Centennial Conference play with a hard-fought 5-4 victory against visiting Dickinson on Saturday. The Fords (4-5, 1-0 CC) rallied from a 2-1 deficit after doubles by winning four of the six singles matches against the Red Devils (3-7, 0-1 CC).
The Fords secured the No. 1 doubles match as the pairing of Josh Moskovitz and Kevin Yan doubled up Dickinson's top duo by an 8-4 final. Haverford's top pairing now has six wins together this season. However, the Red Devils took the early advantage with wins at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles. Both of those Dickinson victories came by 8-5 scores.
All six singles matches ended in straight sets, but there were numerous competitive matches throughout. At the top of the lineup, Leonid Sorkin of Dickinson edged out Josh Moskovitz by a 6-3, 7-5 score. That No. 1 singles battle was a matchup of regionally-ranked foes. Dickinson's only other victory came at No. 3 singles as George Jiang came up just shy in back-to-back 6-4 sets.
Kevin Yan was a winner for Haverford in both singles and doubles as he allowed just four games to his opponent at No. 2 singles. Yan cruised to a 6-1 win during the first before a 6-3 second set clinched his ninth win of the year. Yan is a team-best 6-3 so far during the spring season. Like No. 3 singles, Pranav Krishnan's match at No. 4 singles was decided by back-to-back 6-4 sets. However, Haverford reversed the aforementioned result in this match as Krishnan secured his sixth singles win of the year.
Haverford also got big wins at No. 5 and No. 6 singles to sweep the bottom three matches. Nick Sweeney went up a set with a 6-3 first. Playing the only tiebreak of the day, Sweeney scored seven of the nine points in the extra game to secure a straight-set victory. His match secured the team's win and was his seventh singles victory. Arnav Patodia was also a winner for the Fords at No. 6 singles. Patodia won by 6-2, 6-4 scores to even his record at 6-6 this season. Haverford's junior has posted a 5-4 record during the spring season.
Men's tennis will be back at home this coming Tuesday against Washington College for a 4 p.m. start. Haverford will have a second CC match on the slate next Saturday as they make the trip to Lancaster to take on Franklin & Marshall.